As a follow-up to the previous discussion of James
Fitton, I shall attempt to illustrate a principle of
methodology.. How does one evaluate the explanatory
power of the Saturn theory in the concrete terms we have
suggested? Since Fitton criticized Velikovsky for
claiming the Greek Athena was Venus, I will employ this
goddess as our test case, though any well-documented
goddess figure could be approached in the same way. Our
reference for now is a "snapshot" of the Saturnian
configuration on the thunderbolts.info website. Scroll down to the ad
for the full-length documentary Symbols of an Alien Sky and look
at the 8 pointed star in the configuration on the cover.
This snapshot resolves a more complex, evolving planetary configuration
into a single glimpse.

Our subject is the central "star" of Venus, seen in the
center of the gas giant Saturn, with luminous streamers
radiating from Venus to spread visually across the much
larger sphere of Saturn. In our previous discussion, I
presented a list of mythical attributes attached to this
unique form of Venus. It is my contention not only
that these forms are essential to the Venus or goddess-archetype, but that no comprehension of the archetype is
even possible apart from the explicit contexts suggested
in this illustration.

These contexts include, 1) CENTRALITY in relationship to
another body remembered as the universal sovereign, 2)
Comet-like STREAMERS exploding into light as the Sun set
and the surrounding sky darkened, and 3) the appearance
of a darker or reddish smaller body in front of (i.e.,
visually inside) the sphere of Venus, this body being
identifiable through comparative analysis as the planet
Mars, the archetypal warrior-hero.

For the sake of focus in the limited space allowed here,
we'll look at two motifs - number 7 and number 10 - to
illustrate the comparative test. Then, in our next
submission, we'll show the crucial connections to the
other symbolic forms.

THE EYE GODDESS.

It seems that around the world ancient races identified
the planet Venus as "the Eye," or "Great Eye," though
the speck of light we know as Venus today does not stand
in relation to another body in any way that might
suggest a central eye. (On considering our illustration
of Venus in relation to Saturn, however, the most common
statement we receive from people is, "That looks like an
eye!")

In fact, the Sumerian Inanna and Akkadian Ishtar, both
identified with Venus, are the commonly acknowledged
prototypes of the famous "eye goddesses" whose influence
reached as far as northern Europe. (A good introduction
is OGS Crawford's classic work, THE EYE GODDESS.)

On the other side of the world, the Maya knew Venus as Nohoch Ich "Great Eye." In the Hervey Islands of the
Pacific, Venus was called Tamatanui, the "eye of Tane"
(ancestral great king). The ancient Chinese term for
Venus is connected with a root meaning "Eye of the
Ancestor." (This information came to me from Eric
Miller, who spent many years investigating Chinese
imagery of Venus.) And the Ringa-Ringaroo of Australia
remembered the planet Venus as Mimungoona, "The Big
Eye". This widespread identity of Venus as the "eye" is
surely the key to understanding why the Egyptian
goddesses Isis, Hathor, Sekhmet, and others commonly
identified with the Mediterranean Astarte/Aphrodite/Venus were invoked throughout ancient Egypt as "the Eye
of Ra". More specifically, as I have noted elsewhere,
the Egyptian language implies a SMALLER orb appearing
squarely in the center of a LARGER sphere. The texts
describe the Eye shining "with splendors on the forehead
of Ra". (The "splendors" of the Eye must be understood
in substantive terms, as the streamers radiating from
central orb; see #4 above.)

It is also worth noting that the respected Egyptologist
Rudolf Anthes investigated the Egyptian Eye-motif in
great detail, concluding that the Eye goddess was the
planet Venus. Of course, he drew this conclusion
without the benefit of the global comparative analysis
which secures the case beyond any reasonable doubt.

Immanuel Velikovsky, in identifying Athena with Venus,
never discussed the eye motif, but the very presence of
such an unusual theme attached to Venus can hardly be
ignored in an investigation of the Greek goddess. There
are at least four epithets of Athena which are
suggestive of the connection to the eye goddess. Athena
is the "flashing-eyed", the "strong-eyed", the "owl-eyed" (or bright-eyed) and the "Gorgon-eyed", Are these
epithets to be taken as loose metaphors, whose precise
meaning has been lost over time? Or are they echoes of
an ancient theme (EYE-goddess), which the experts on
Athena have missed?

In his DESCRIPTION OF GREECE (3.18.2), Pausanias gives a form of Athena
as Ophthalmitis "Goddess of the Eye".
That alone should give us a strong indication of the
connection to the worldwide theme of Venus as central Eye.

Obviously we cannot here pursue all of the leads, but
let us simply take one, that of Athena as Glaukopis, the
"owl-eyed" goddess. Will comparative analysis give us
grounds for connecting this Athena epithet to the
attributes of the more widespread Eye goddess?

In "Symbols of an Alien Sky", I have noted that the
general trend of symbolism over time was toward
increasingly naturalistic representation. And thus, in
the course of giving the central eye-star a human form
(as goddess), the symbolists DUPLICATED it, since single
eyes do not occur in nature. Put two pictographs of the
Venus-eye together, and you have the beginnings of
anthropomorphic representation, a trend which can be
easily documented. But something else happens. The
"head" of the goddess so represented takes on a strange
resemblance to an "owl" ("Symbols", pages 90-91).

As shown by Marija Gimbutas and others, the ancient eye
goddess does, in fact, pass into the figure of an "owl"
goddess. From eye goddess to owl goddess: nothing more
is needed in order to explain the owl-eyed Athene, a
goddess who was also REPRESENTED by, or as, an owl, One
such representation of the "owl of Athena" is given on
page 91. Note that the form of the owl-eyes is
precisely that which we have given as the original eye-star of Venus.

Of course, to the experts, this aspect of Athene seems
to bear no connection to the other attributes of the
goddess. If our hypothesis is correct, that will be
because these specialists have yet to discern the
connection between the later symbol and the celestial
object originally symbolized. Such regional symbols DO
NOT EXPLAIN THEMSELVES, but are explained in the most
concrete way by the hypothesized celestial form, as it
is reflected in evolving symbolic patterns.

THE SHIELD GODDESS

Of all the symbols of Athena, none is more prominent
than the AEGIS, the famous "shield" on which artists
frequently portrayed the head of the Gorgon Medusa, with
which Athena herself is so intimately associated. Is it
possible, then, that there is a simple, but unrecognized
connection between the "owl-eyed" Athena and the
"Gorgon-eyed" Athena?

In the general tradition, the central star of Venus and
its effusion of "radiance" was the protection of the
warrior-hero (Mars), who is represented by the innermost
orb in the pictographs under discussion. You see this,
for example, in the role of Egyptian goddesses as "the
Great Protectress". To stand inside the radiant eye
(goddess) was to find the unassailable position. Thus,
Egyptian texts proclaim, " He is Horus encircled with
the protection of his Eye". "My refuge is my Eye, my
protection is my Eye". But while Egyptologists
acknowledge the identity of Eye and goddess, they have
nothing to tell us about the meaning of this enigmatic
language.

What, then, was the "protection" enjoyed by the hero,
when he occupied that desired position INSIDE the eye?
It was nothing other than the jetting of luminous or
"fiery" material outward, presenting the appearance of
explosive, UNAPPROACHABLE streams.

Of the Egyptian Eye goddess Sekhmet, the texts declare,
"It is a flame which drives away on its account....No
one at all can approach her, the streams behind her are
flames of fire." (The streams stretch up the polar axis
BEHIND Venus.)

Similarly, The Sumerian "Exaltation of Inanna" speaks of
those "who dare not proceed before [Inanna's] terrible
countenance". The texts depict the goddess "clothed in
radiance." And it was said that the world stood in
"fear and trembling at [her] tempestuous radiance." In
considering these images, I trust the reader will
appreciate why translators, despite the power and
explicitness of the images, do not take them seriously --
they simply find NO REFERENCE FOR THEM in our sky today.

On our earth, great warriors represented this protective
function by duplicating the image on their shields. I
have given an example on page 92, which shows all of the
hypothesized components and precisely replicates both
the Eye-goddess pictographs and the eye form of the "owl
of Athena" on the previous page. The innermost orb will
mean the warrior hero (Mars), protected by the blazing
radiance of the central star or "comet".

All that is needed in an investigation of this sort is
that one uncover the underlying forms. No selectivity
is required in order to take the tests in one direction
(eye motif), or another direction (shield motif). One
will either find the precise form predicted by the
model, or one will find something else, thereby
challenging the model as a unified theory.

[As a footnote I should mention that Ev Cochrane has
sent to me a few notes on the Athena-eye connection.
Until I received these notes, I did not know that Athena
was called Eriopis ("strong eyed") or Gorgopis ("Gorgon-eyed"). As it turns out, both epithets will figure
crucially in our next installment, dealing with the eye
as the power or "strength" of the primeval sun (#4 in
our list of symbols above) and as the head of the
feminine chaos monster (Gorgon/Medusa) in an unstable
phase of the configuration.]